A resident of Maryland who recently returned from a trip to Central America has recovered from a travel-associated New World screwworm infestation, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed. The CDC worked with the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) to verify the case — the first reported in the U.S. since screwworm’s resurgence in North America. The subsequent investigation indicates there was no sign of transmission to other humans or to animals, according to a National Public Radio (NPR) report on Aug. 25, which stated that a spokesperson for the MDH confirmed the lack of transmission in an email, telling NPR that the detection serves as a “timely reminder for health care providers, livestock owners, and others to maintain vigilance through routine monitoring.”

Preliminary reports of the Maryland patient were muddled and unofficial: a Reuters article noted that sources in the beef industry had apparently heard of the occurrence before USDA publicly announced the case on Sunday, Aug. 24. Reuters also reported that the CDC and MDH had confirmed the case on Aug. 4, and the delay between this confirmation and the public announcement has drawn criticism from some sectors. At least one news outlet pointed to Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins’ visit to Texas — on the frontlines of the screwworm battle — where she announced the agency’s $750 million plan for construction of a sterile fly facility to fight the parasitic pest. Additionally, there was conflicting initial information about which Central American nation the patient had traveled to; Reuters first reported that — according to emails from beef industry officials — it was Guatemala, but updates after the formal announcement clarified that it was El Salvador. According to a source who spoke to Reuters, the group Beef Alliance emailed a number of people to inform them of the case but mistakenly identified the wrong country.

The cattle producers’ association R-CALF USA issued a public statement Aug. 25, referencing the market’s response to a false-alarm screwworm report in May that came out of Missouri and temporarily disrupted the market. R-CALF USA chief executive officer Bill Bullard responded to the news reports on the confirmed Maryland case and the CDC’s and USDA’s apparent delay in informing the public, stating “We are deeply concerned that if the publicly disseminated Reuters report is accurate, including its implication that only select industry participants were timely informed of the detection of this devastating pest in the United States, then our governmental system is fundamentally broken.” Bullard called for an investigation if the human case was confirmed and only “a select group of industry insiders” were informed. On Aug. 26, USDA issued a statement about the Maryland travel-associated case; read ithere.

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